How to travel long distance with kids? Schedule stopovers

I’m proud to call the tiny sugarcane farming community of Ingham, Australia, my hometown.

It boasts blue skies, sandy beaches and Australia’s longest single-drop waterfall. But its location — at the northern end of the state of Queensland — is a problem for me.

Lured by the desire to explore Europe, I left for London 17 years ago, on a two-year working holiday visa. I had no idea that a handsome English stranger I met in a bar one evening would be my future husband. It’s the reason that I am now a permanent resident of the United Kingdom, raising two young boys who speak with British accents and have no idea what Vegemite is.

Our yearly return to Australia involves multiple long-haul flights and a 10-hour time difference. So we book stopovers to break up the distance.

We try to stop somewhere new each time. Here’s what we have found so far.

Pros: Seoul’s street food, kid-friendly Korean Air

The cinema-themed Hotel28 provides popcorn and gift packs for kids on arrival. The mini bar is free too. It’s in the heart of the buzzy Myeongdong district, packed with Korean barbecue, fried chicken, noodle and seafood restaurants. Around the corner at the Myeongdog Night Market, we sampled street food like fried baby crab while watching K-pop buskers.

Getting to Seoul was a cinch on Korean Air, which lets parents pre-book kids’ meals like pizza, hot dogs and barbecue chicken. Plus, they provide kid-sized headphones for the in-flight entertainment. 

If there’s no connecting flight to your destination on the day itself, Korean Air includes a free night’s stay at the five-star Grand Hyatt Incheon. We took advantage of this on the way back from Australia. The stay included a vast breakfast buffet, where we feasted on Korean food and Western classics before boarding the 14-hour flight from Seoul to London.

Cons: Traffic and translation issues

Nearly half of South Korea’s population lives in the Seoul metropolitan area, so traffic in the city is intense. Our taxi ride into the city took an hour, but the ride back to the airport — in rush hour — was three times as long. We arrived 30 minutes before our flight departed, and we were not allowed to check in. Korean Air offered us a free new flight to Australia — a week later. It still pains me to think about how much this oversight cost us.

Many people speak English, but if you have food allergies, I recommend writing your needs down in Korean, using a translation app, or potentially rethinking your stopover location.

Pros: Cheap flights turn it into an Asian getaway

Bangkok is a great stopping point between London and Brisbane. From there, it doesn’t cost much to reach Thailand’s famous coastlines.

We took a 1.5-hour flight to the beach town of Krabi, where we spent a week at the ShellSea Krabi resort. Our four-month-old slept in his pram by the pool while our oldest drank mocktails, took Thai boxing lessons and collected shells from the beach. We ate outdoors under homemade gazebos and took in a local music festival.

Back in Bangkok, we swam in our hotel pool and visited the night market, where we tried banana fritters and barbecue skewers, and our oldest ate a whole bag of fried insects for dinner.

Cons: Bangkok’s busyness

Bangkok may not be everyone’s choice when traveling with two young kids. The never-ending traffic makes it difficult to walk around, and the air quality is questionable.

However, we didn’t have the airport journey issues we experienced in Seoul. As a bonus, our flights to Krabi left from Don Mueang International Airport, a less busy airport in the northern part of the city.

Pros: Attractions galore

Home to the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, and one of the world’s biggest waterpark, the Aquaventure Waterpark in Dubai was an exciting place to take our then four-year-old, and it was a no-brainer to build family days around those two attractions.

Staying at the 25hours Hotel was an attraction unto itself. The lobby is a hive of activity, and the rooftop pool overlooks the architecturally impressive Museum of the Future.

We were there during Ramadan and joined the fast-breaking iftar buffet at the hotel’s main restaurant, which featured an array of curries and sides, as well as a grill outside doling out freshly carved doner meat, served with jeweled rice and salads. It was popular with local families, who piled in for the special meal.

Cons: Pricey

Dubai is expensive. A family day pass to Aquaventure is around $260, while entrance to the Burj Khalifa, combined with the Dubai Aquarium, cost another $243.

Pros: Late checkout, choice flights

Our stop in Singapore was pre-children, but it’s one we may repeat as it was such an easy place to visit. We splashed out for a club room at the Mandarin Oriental, which included late checkout, a Champagne breakfast, and a complimentary dim sum afternoon tea. Late checkout would definitely come in handy with the kids, especially to shower and change before the next flight.

Singapore also has the most connections to Australia of any Asian city we’ve traveled through. Changi Airport feels like it was designed to keep kids busy, with its butterfly garden, koi carp ponds and free massage chairs.

Cons: Lacks the buzz

Clean, easy to get around, a variety of food options and an excellent level of English — it’s hard to think of cons for a stop in Singapore. If I had to be picky, I’d say it’s not as buzzy as Seoul and Bangkok, and it’s more expensive too.